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14-11-2013

ARA News

Amude, Syria− Residents of the Kurdish city of Amude, north-east of Syria, used to commemorate the tragic incident of the city’s cinema building that was burned on November 13, 1960, causing the death of more than 200 children who were watching a movie when the incident took place.

Unlike the past years, the commemoration of Amude’s cinema this year didn’t see the usual crowd of people gathering around the monument that was built in the same location of the devastated cinema building.

Although the city is currently under the control of Kurdish forces linked to the Democratic Union Party (PYD), beside the local committee of the Kurdish National Council in Syria (KNC), people were not allowed to gather “due to the security vacuum and instability in the area”, according to the Kurdish forces in Amude.

A number of Kurdish politicians and residents were only allowed to put a bunch of flowers on the so-called Tomb of Martyrs −the monument of Amude cinema’s victims.

The PYD-led People’s Council of Western Kurdistan didn’t respond to the resident’s call to allow a popular gathering in the commemoration day, sources said. On the other hand, the Kurdish National Council (KNC) couldn’t make a clear decision about the demand of Amude’s residents to gather around the monument’s location as every year. The KNC resorted its hesitation to the fears of potential confrontation with the PYD’s affiliated forces in the city.

Saeed Ali Bakari, leader of the Kurdish Equality Party and a member of the KNC’s local council in Amude told ARA News that the KNC tried to avoid any clashes with the PYD’s forces in the city.

“Residents of Amude showed anger due to the People’s Council decision that prevented them from taking to the street on Wednesday as they used to do to remember the cinema’s tragic incident. We couldn’t take a one-sided decision either to avoid any disputes and violence that might have taken place in the city, since such a decision would be considered by the PYD’s supporters as a challenge to the allegedly needed consensus on any decisions that concern the city’s security,” Bakari said.

Meanwhile, the People’s Council issued a statement attributing the reason for its decision to the intention “to avoid problems and disorder among people”.

However, Amude’s Organization of the Kurdish Yekiti Party in Syria issued a statement calling for gathering in the city market and “heading towards the Memorial of Martyrs of Amude’s Cinema” to put a wreath on the memorial.

Abdul Ilah Auajeh, the member of the Kurdish Yeketi Party in Syria told ARA News that Yekiti, as a Kurdish party, usually commemorate this occasion every year through visiting the “Garden of Martyrs” and placing wreath on “monument of the martyrs”. “We did the same this year too, regardless of the decision of both councils,” Auajeh added.

On Wednesday, dozens of residents commemorated the 53rd Anniversary of the cinema’s “massacre” in the Kurdish city of Amude, and gothered around the victims’ monument.